“Critical Thinking Needed” says the DPM of Malaysia recently in one of the local newspapers (http://tinyurl.com/4u85tyv)

The DPM advises Malaysian teachers to “be a teacher who can think critically” and “to instill a culture of innovation and creativity among students”. That is great advise, but how do you develop critical thinking skills or being creative and innovative in people that have gone through a school system that does not develop this in the first place?

The school curriculum in most schools around the world (yes, around the world!) still prioritise on teaching maths, science, literacy (focus on developing left brain capacity). Important subjects for sure, but if we want to develop people that can think critically, are creative and innovative (focus on developing right brain capacity) we need to

On 26 February I delivered my keynote speech at the 10th Business Excellence Forum in Tehran/Iran. My presentation was titled: “The role of leadership in business excellence”. (http://tinyurl.com/4ugthos)

My main message for the more than 500 CEO’s and senior leaders that were attending the forum, was that the key to building a successful organisation for “tomorrow”, is to

Are you able to keep up with the change that is happening in our world right now?
When was the last time you gave yourself the luxury to stop and think? I mean literally stop and think?

We live in a world of “hyperthinking”. This great article will make you aware that we need to start thinking better i.e. more effective and efficient. To achieve this, it is key to know how you think and how to think better.

Over the years Herrmann International has helped millions of people and hundreds of companies to become aware of their thinking and to think better.

Read this great article: http://tinyurl.com/2faf7vj

If you want to know how to improve your thinking, contact us: info@papilionovare.com

 

It was always believed that you cannot generate new brain cells… it turns out you can. A healthy life style (exercise, diet, etc) is key to support this process.

Read full article: http://huff.to/9WzZwq

“In adult centers the nerve paths are something fixed, ended, immutable. Everything may die, nothing may be regenerated.” — Santiago Ramon Y Cajal, “Degeneration and Regeneration in the Nervous System,” 1928
This long-held tenet, first proposed by Professor Cajal, held that brain neurons were unique because they lacked the ability to regenerate.
In 1998, the journal Nature Medicine published a report indicating that neurogenesis, the growth of new brain cells, does indeed occur in humans.

 

www.hbdius.com/blog

Have you ever thought about how unproductive your organisation and employees are?
I am sure you have, yet this article has some shocking statistics!

• On average workers spend only 10.5 minutes on a task before being interrupted.
• It takes an average of 23 minutes to return to the original task – not to mention the time required to mentally re-engage with the task to be effective.
• We are attempting to manage 15 projects a day (vs. 5 in the past).
• 50% of us are either handling too many tasks at one time or are frequently interrupted in the workday, or both.
• The typical executive spends 4.5 hours a week looking for lost papers.

One way to get more productive is to organise your work the Whole Brain way…
Align your work with your thinking preferences and energy levels throughout the day.

Article “Can Your Brain Be Time Literate? Only If You Use Your Whole Brain!”
Read more here -> http://tinyurl.com/2dzh8wb

www.papilionovare.com

Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.

Some excerpts from the presentation:

…Every education system on earth has the same hierarchy of subjects. Every one. Doesn’t matter where you go. You’d think it would be otherwise, but it isn’t. At the top are mathematics and languages, then the humanities, and the bottom are the arts. There isn’t an education system on the planet that teaches dance every day to children the way we teach them mathematics. Why? Why not? [...] what happens is, as children grow up, we start to educate them progressively from the waist up. And then we focus on their heads. And slightly to one side [i.e. the left brain].

For change to be successful, people need to change their mindset first. They need to think different. This is the great challenge many organisations face today. Herrmann International is the founding father and expert for almost 30 years in making people aware of how they think. They have worked with more than 90% of the Fortune 100 companies around the world to make people think better, perform better and be more productive.

So when one of my clients asked me “How can we change the mindset of our employees?” The answer was easy, it all starts with better thinking.

Read more about how to achieve this in this white paper written by Ann Herrmann (CEO of Herrmann International) and Michael Morgan (CEO of Herrmann International Asia)

Article “Changing Minds” -> http://tinyurl.com/25ysrnr

Please keep a close eye on our website and blog as we are in the process of completely upgrading our web presence.

New features to be expected:

- Complete face-lift and integration of our website and blog…

- Follow us on Twitter…

- Photo gallery…

- As Herrmann International’s representative and preferred supplier for Malaysia, all about Whole Brain Thinking and the HBDI…

and more.

Expected launch of our new website end of September 2010.

The author of this article, Vincent Bouw (vincent@papilionovare.com),  is a Certified Practitioner in Whole  Brain Thinking and the HBDI instrument.

Much research has been done on the brain and although we are discovering new things every day, there is still a lot of mystery around how the human brain actually works.  Whole brain thinking started with the discovery of the left and the right hemisphere. Based on research by Roger Sperry, for which he was awarded the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine, we now use this metaphor and know that the left and the right brain house different functions and have a different focus.

These different focus areas in the brain are very well described in the Whole Brain Model© (Figure 1) by Ned Herrmann.

Performance management can be defined as the organized method of monitoring results of work activities, evaluating performance to determine achievement of goals, and using performance information to make decisions, allocate resources and communicate whether objectives are met. It also involves creating a work environment or setting in which people are enabled to perform to the best of their abilities.

Looking at performance management, it is captured between two extremes, one end can be defined as “managing with the carrot” or using ‘soft’ development techniques and the other end of the scale as “managing with the stick” or using ‘hard’ measurement techniques. Each approach has its own positives and drawbacks. Organisations that have implemented a performance management system will fall somewhere between ‘development’ and ‘measurement’ (Hay Group, 2006)